Tag: politics

The Nehru Report of 28-30 August 1928 was a memorandum outlining a proposed new dominion status constitution for India. It was prepared by a committee of the All Parties Conference chaired by Motilal Nehru with his son Jawaharlal Nehru acting as secretary. There were nine other members of this committee. The final report was signed by Motilal Nehru, Ali Imam, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Madhav Shrihari Aney, Mangal Singh, Shuaib Qureshi, Subhas Chandra Bose, and G. R. Pradhan. Qureshi disagreed with some of the recommendations.

The constitution outlined by the Nehru Report was for Indian enjoying dominion status within the British Commonwealth. Some of the important elements of the report:

Unlike the eventual Government of India Act 1935, it contained a Bill of Rights.

All power of government and all authority – legislative, executive and judicial – are derived from the people and the same shall be exercised through organizations established by, or under, and in accord with, this Constitution.

There shall be no state religion; men and women shall have equal rights as citizens.

There should be the federal form of government with residuary powers vested in the center.(Some scholars, such as Moore 1988 considered the Nehru Report proposal as essentially unitary rather than federal);

It included a description of the machinery of government including a proposal for the creation of a Supreme Court and a suggestion that the provinces should be linguistically determined.

It did not provide for separate electorates for any community or weightage for minorities. Both of these were liberally provided in the eventual Government of India Act 1935. However, it did allow for the reservation of minority seats in provinces having minorities of at least ten percent, but this was to be in strict proportion to the size of the community.

The language of the Union shall be Indian, which may be written either in Devanagari (Hindi/Sanskrit), Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali or Tamil in character. The use of the English language shall be permitted.

The decision to effect the Partition of Bengal was announced in July 1905, by the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon. The partition took place on 16 October 1905 and separated the largely Muslim eastern areas from the largely Hindu western areas. The Hindus of West Bengal who dominated Bengal’s business and rural life complained that the division would make them a minority in a province that would incorporate the province of Bihar and Orissa. Hindus were outraged at what they recognized as a “divide and rule” policy, where the colonizers turned the native population against itself in order to rule, even though Curzon stressed it would produce administrative efficiency.

Effect Of Partition:

This partition provided an impetus to the religious divide and the All India Muslim League and All India Hindu Mahasabha were formed. Both organizations aimed at fanning communal passions.

the Indian National Congress began the Swadeshi movement that included boycotting British goods and public institutions, meetings and processions, forming committees, propaganda through the press, and diplomatic pressure. Hitherto untouched sections of Indian society participated in these movements, providing the base for later movements. The richness of the movement extended to culture, science, and literature.

This Swadeshi movement was first of its kind, it reunites the harmony of Hindu-Muslim.

Rabindranath Tagore wrote Banglar Mati Banglar Jolas a rallying cry for proponents of annulment of Partition.

The Government of India Act, 1919 also known as Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was passed to expand participation of Indians in the government of India.

The Act provided a dual form of government (a “diarchy”) for the major provinces. In each such province, control of some areas of government, the “transferred list”, were given to a Government of ministers answerable to the Provincial Council. The ‘transferred list’ included agriculture, supervision of local government, health, and education. The Provincial Councils were enlarged. These reforms represented the maximum concessions the British were prepared to make at that time. The franchise was extended, and increased authority was given to central and provincial legislative councils, but the viceroy remained responsible only to London.

Salient features of the Act were as follows:

This Act had a separate Preamble which declared that Objective of the British Government is the gradual introduction of responsible Government in India.

Diarchy was introduced as Provincial Level. Diarchy means a dual set of governments one is accountable another is not accountable. The provincial subjects were divided into two groups: One was reserved and another was transferred. The reserved subjects were kept with the Governor and transferred subjects were kept with the Indian Ministers. This division of subjects was basically what they meant by introducing the Diarchy.

The Government of India Act of 1919, made a provision for classification of the central and provincial subjects. The Act kept the Income Tax as the source of revenue to the Central Government. However, for Bengal and Bombay for which, to meet their objections, a provision to assign them 25% of the Income-tax was made.

No bill of the legislature could be deemed to have been passed unless assented to by the governor general. The later could, however, enact a Bill without the assent of the legislature.

This Act made the central legislature bicameral. The lower house was the Legislative Assembly, with 145 members serving three-year terms (the model for today’s Lok Sabha); the upper house was the Council of States with 60 members serving five-year terms (the model for today’s Rajya Sabha)

The Act provided for the establishment of a Public Service Commission in India for the first time.

This act also made a provision that a statutory commission would be set up at the end of 10 years after the act was passed which shall inquire into the working of the system of the government. The Simon commission of 1927 was an outcome of this provision.

The communal representation was extended and Sikhs, Europeans, and Anglo-Indians were included. The Franchise (Right of voting) was granted to the limited number of only those who paid certain minimum “Tax” to the government.

The seats were distributed among the provinces not upon the basis of the population but upon the basis of their importance in the eyes of the government, on the basis of communities, and the property was one of the main basis to determine a franchise. Those people who had a property, taxable income & paid land revenue of Rs. 3000 were entitled to vote.

The financial powers of the central legislature were also very much limited. The budget was to be divided into two categories, votable and non-votable. The votable items covered only one third of the total expenditure. Even in this spher, the Governor-General was empowered to restore any grant refused or reduced by the legislature, if in his opinion the demand was essential for the discharge of his responsibilities. Thus the Government of India Act provided for partial transfer of Power to the electorate through the system of diarchy. It also prepared the ground for the Indian Federalism, as it identified the provinces as units of fiscal and general administration.

To restore the stability of British Raj after Lord Curzon’s Bengal partition, INDIAN COUNCILS ACT 1909 also known as Morley Minto reform, passed in British parliament in leadership of John Morley, the Liberal Secretary of State for India,

Major Provisions of Morley-Minto Reforms

The Act amended the Indian Councils Act 1861 and the Indian Councils Act 1892:

1. The members of the Legislative Councils, both in the centre and in the provinces, were to be of four categories: ex officio members (Governor General and the members of their Executive Councils), nominated official members (those nominated by the Governor General and were government officials), nominated non-official members (nominated by the Governor General but were not government officials) and elected members (elected by different categories of Indian people).

2. The maximum number of nominated and elected members of the Legislative Council at the Center was increased from 16 to 69, excluding ex officio members.

3. The maximum number of nominated and elected members of the provincial legislative councils, under a governor or lieutenant governor, was also increased. It was fixed as 50 in Bengal, Bombay, Madras, United Provinces, and Eastern Bengal and Assam, and 30 in Punjab, Burma, and any lieutenant-governor province created thereafter. Legislative councils were not created for provinces under a chief commissioner.

4. The right of separate electorate was given to the Muslims.

5. Official members were to form the majority but in provinces, nonofficial members would be in majority.

6. The members of the Legislative Councils were permitted to discuss budgets, suggest amendments and even vote on them except items that were included as non-vote items. They were also entitled to ask supplementary questions during the legislative proceedings.

7. The Secretary of State for India was empowered to increase the number of the Executive Councils of Madras and Bombay from two to four.

8. Two Indians were nominated to the Council of the Secretary of State for Indian Affairs.

9. The Governor-General was empowered to nominate one Indian member to his Executive Council.

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